The Pidure of Agriculktrat Gomi')eiition. 
753 
The weak point iu this calculation is its want of allowance 
tbr increased production per acre, and increased area to be made 
ivailable by means of irrigation of immense tracts of arid land. 
Jfficial statistics show that the area of land not settled in the 
United States, apart from the arid tracts, is comparatively small, 
and is rapidly vanishing. Mr. Carter, Commissioner of the 
General Land Office of the United States, in his report for the 
liscal year ended June 30, 1891, says :— " In the progress of the 
isettlement of the public domain, it has become a question of the 
greatest practical importance how the thousands of people now 
yearly seeking homes on the public lands from all quarters of 
the Republic, and who may be expected to do so hereafter, are 
to be provided with the homes for which they seek. Very little 
desirable public land remains unappropriated outside of the 
boundaries of what may be termed the arid region." The Com- 
missioner goes on to cite the mad scramble for land which oc- 
curred about two years ago when part of the Oklahoma Territory 
(an old Indian reservation) was thrown open, as a proof of the 
scarcity of land on which crops can be raised without irrigation. 
Since he wrote a still more striking corroboration of his remarks 
has been given ; for, in spite of the fact that numbers of the 
settlers in the first portion of Oklahoma were known to have 
suffered from severe destitution, on the opening of a further tract 
in the same territory last summer, there was as mad a scramble 
for quarter-sections of land as there was on the occasion just 
mentioned. 
Still, long before any considerable deficiency of acreage could 
be experienced in a country which has been holding the leading 
position among the producing countries of the world, prices would 
have been forced up sufficiently to render irrigation and high 
farming remunerative. Mr. Davis's prediction might be accepted 
as true in a broad sense if he could prove that, during the next 
fifteen years, unpopulated or thinly-populated countries are likely 
to be able to produce wheat and other agricultural staples much 
more cheaply than America can produce them. That he cannot 
show this, at any rate as far as wheat is concerned, is indicated 
by the fact that his own figures, if approximately correct, prove 
that during the past decade of low prices the wheat acreage of 
the world has increased by only 5^ million acres (too liberal an 
allowance probably), an addition far short of the extra area re- 
quired to feed the increase in population. Moreover, he declares 
that five conditions must prevail in any country to insui'e a great 
and speedy increase of grain production — favourable climate, 
fertile soil, an unemployed area, sufficient population, and ample 
means of transportation. Australasia, Siberia, and the lliver 
VOL. II. T. s.— 8 3 n 
